Seems like Wrigley would be a good fit for him. Fenway, too.

http://keymancollectibles.com/baseballcards/i...

I kid.

other than being around Caminitti, Clemens and Petitte at times, not that I know of...

Racism

This seems to be the predominant argument against, that he was just a compiler, but the context of his accomplishments, is easy to take for granted now and maybe not fair to Lee:

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/1...

I think many see Lee Smith as an compiler of career stats but never really a dominant player.

He had 234 saves from 1980-1989 where he was used often in multiple innings, like the closers of old. But during that 10-year stretch, he was just an All-Star twice and only received 1 Cy Young vote (leading to a 9th place finish in 1983). And he pitched in 4 post-season games, taking two losses with an ERA of 8.44. He just wasn't perceived as dominant. During the decade of the 1980s, the following closers received Cy Young Votes:

1980: Gossage (3rd, and 3rd in MVP), Quisenberry (5th and 8th in MVP), McGraw (5th), Sambito (5th)
1981: Fingers (1st and 1st in MVP), Gossage (5th), Sutter (5th)
1982: Quisenberry (3rd and 9th in MVP), Caudil (7th), Stanley (7th), Sutter (3rd and 5th in MVP), Minton (6th and 8th in MVP), Garber (7th)
1983: Quisenberry (2nd and 6th in MVP), Orosco (3rd), Holland (6th)
1984: Hernandez (1st, and 1st in MVP), Quisenberry (2nd and 3rd in MVP), Sutter (3rd and 6th in MVP), Gossage (6th)
1985: Quisenberry (3rd), Moore (7th and 6th in MVP), Reardon (7th)
1986: Righetti (4th), Eichorn (6th)
1987: Reardon (8th), Bedrosian (1st)
1988: Eckersley (2nd and 5th in MVP)
1989: Eckersley (6th and 5th in MVP), Olson (6th), Russell (9th), Davis (1st and 6th in MVP), Williams (9th)

So if you were a sportswriter in the 1980s, you would note the dominance of Fingers to start the decade, and Gossage, Sutter, and Quisenberry for the first half of it, then a couple year lull, and then the reign of Eck began in 1988. Smith was never perceived as being that dominant reliever. He was always among the top 5 or so, but there were a couple who were always well ahead of him, and then the flavor of the year (Hernandez, Mark Davis) would jump ahead too.

Beginning in 1990, with his trade to the Cardinals, he was used almost exclusively as a 1-inning reliever for the rest of his career (436 games, 456 innings). He added on another 244 saves before he retired in 1997. The last couple of years were middle relief, so he basically had 6 seasons as a modern closer, saving 31, 47, 43, 46, 33, and 37 games. He made 5 All-Star teams during this period and received Cy Young votes in three years, finishing 2nd, 4th, and 5th.

But he was competing with a new generation of closers at this point. While Smith was racking up saves, others were doing so with far more dominant seasons. 1990-1991 were solid years for him, but in 1990 Eckersley had a 0.61 ERA and Thigpen had 57 saves. In 1991, Bryan Harvey had one fewer save, but an ERA of 1.60, 101 Ks in just 78 IP, and an ERA+ of 257! Then from 1992-1995, Smith's ERA was well over 3.00 each year, and so while he was still getting saves, he was doing so far less dominantly than guys like Randy Myers, John Franco, Rod Beck, and even guys like Duane Ward and Jose Mesa. Playing for 7 teams from 1990-1997 certainly hurt Smith's image as well.

So in the end, Smith is difficult for voters to categorize. I think many think that had he pitched from 1975-1989, we wouldn't be having this discussion. He was clearly not as dominant in his time as were Fingers, Gossage, Sutter, and Quisenberry; and he wouldn't have had the easy, 1-inning saves, to pad his career totals at the end. Similarly, if he pitched from 1990-2005, we would probably see him has a John Franco, who got just 27 votes on his only year on the ballot and fell off with less than 5 percent, despite having the 2nd most saves when he retired.

His big career save totals combined with this perception that he was one of the old-school guys like Gossage and Sutter keep him in the discussion; but when a lot of voters look into it, they don't see him as dominant as the old-school guys or as dominant as the new school guys like Eck, Hoffman, and Rivera, and so I just don't see him climbing much higher than where he is right now.